23 Sep 2018, 05:15
Salute!
Nice call, Pop!!!
Where's my air-conditioned trailer? No O-club? What kinda austere base is this, anyway.
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No way USAF ever wanted or needed a STOVL attack plane. Jez my opinion.
Sortie rates are something I am familiar with, having flown two attack types that had super rates. Naturally, the A-37 was awesome. But then the Viper came along. Huh? High tech avionics? One motor? Multi-role? Yep, all of the above.
During one ORI 1983 or so the 4th flew over 100 sorties in one day after starting with 22 or 23 airframes that morning. Seems that if the plane worked on the first sortie that is hardly ever broke.
That being said, if you want a huge sortie rate and short response time to the grunts, then keep the Hawg around for another 30 years and fly from sh!!!hole bases or strips in the desert/jungle. Dunno what scenario that would be goodl for other than useless nation-building fiascoes we have seen for too many years.
Where we were and are still good at is getting a squadron, or at least a decent number of planes, to some remote area in a day or so. Being a plans weenie back then, it was a beautiful thing to see the deployment within 24 hours of T+0. There are also OPLAN's for small groups, like 6 or 8 planes, to be airborne within 12 hours or less. Depends on your wing.
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This whole thing sounds like it should be a thread dealing with strategy, roles and missions.
Gums sends...
Gums
Viper pilot '79
"God in your guts, good men at your back, wings that stay on - and Tally Ho!"